Histamine (1H-imidazole 4-ethaneamine) is a component of the storage granules of myeloid cells including basophils1 and mast cells.2 Histamine secretion from gastric serosal cells contributes to the stimulation of gastric acid secretion. The clinical importance of histamine in the pathogenesis of allergy and asthma has long been appreciated.3 Together with the cysteinyl-leukotrienes, histamine contributes to the airway constriction, edema, vascular congestion, and inflammatory cell recruitment seen in acute allergic respiratory disease. Bacterial decarboxylation of the amino acid histidine in fresh fish produces histamine, which can be used as a health hazard biomarker indicative of bacterial contamination. The measurement of histamine levels is therefore of importance in fields as diverse as food quality inspection, pharmaceutical development, and clinical diagnostics. Our Histamine EIA kit is a derivitization-amplified competitive enzyme immunoassay which detects histamine within the range from 400 pg/ml to 50,000 pg/ml. The assay can be used for the analysis of histamine in blood (plasma or serum) without extraction or purification. The use of other sample types may require further processing or purification of the sample. [Bertin Catalog No. A05890]